One of Walton's first jobs in
retail was running a franchise for Ben Franklin, a chain of
discount stores, in the 1940s.

While he was operating the Ben
Franklin store, Walton constantly visited his competition across
the street.

"What really drove Sam was that
competition across the street — John Dunham over at the Sterling
Store," Walton's wife, Helen Walton, recalled in the book. "Sam
was always over there checking on John. Always. Looking at his
prices, looking at his displays, looking at what was going
on."

Later on, when Walton built the first predecessor to Wal-Mart in
Bentonville, Arkansas, he copied everything from Ben Franklin —
from the accounting system to the shelving.

"Although we called it Walton's Five and Dime, it was a Ben
Franklin's franchise," Walton wrote.

Walton said he was obsessive about staying on top of every new
idea in retail.

"I read an article about these two Ben Franklin stores up in
Minnesota that had gone to self-service — a brand-new concept at
the time," Walton wrote. "I rode the bus all night long to two
little towns up there — Pipestone and Worthington. They had
shelves on the side and two island counters all the way back. No
clerks with cash registers around the store. Just checkout
registers up front. I liked it. So I did that too."

Seven decades later, Wal-Mart is the biggest retailer in the
world with more than 11,000 stores and nearly $486 billion in
sales last year.

Wal-Mart Stores CEO Doug
McMillon says copying competitors is still a core part of
the company's strategy.

"I mean going all
the way back to [Wal-Mart founder] Sam Walton, we had a part
of our DNA that was interested in learning from others,"
McMillon told PBS' Charlie
Rose in an interview last year. "Copying good ideas. Don't be so proud
that you can't implement a good idea."

One of the main competitors of
interest to Wal-Mart right now is Amazon.

"We believe in learning from
other people," McMillon said in the PBS interview.
"And what Amazon’s doing and what [Amazon founder
Jeff Bezos is] doing is showing us and showing the
world what’s possible, and I admire that."

When asked what he admired
about Amazon's business, McMillon said: "Very customer focused.
Moving with speed. Just putting ideas at work that are
directly beneficial to customers."